A chocolate or chocolate-like food molded into a block- or plate-like shape is often produced by being added with solid fats with relatively high melting point in addition to cocoa butter such that the chocolate or chocolate-like food does not change its shape resulting from loosening the chocolate or chocolate-like food. This is thought to be influenced by circumstances that temperature control was not feasible in a distribution stage and it was not uncommon for the chocolate product to be exposed to high temperatures. However, the shipment at a variety of temperature ranges appropriate to the type of food product has become available in these days. There is no need to worry about a chocolate mix melting during the stage of distribution and, in contrast, occurrence of low-temperature bloom is becoming problematic in the chocolate product, which low-temperature bloom is caused by the chocolate product being kept at low-temperatures.
Occurrence of low-temperature bloom is often problematic particularly in the chocolate product added with nuts and seeds such as almonds, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts or peanuts. In a chocolate product containing the nuts and seeds, oil and fat migration between fats contained in the nuts and seeds and fats contained in a chocolate mix may sometimes occur, which causes deterioration of the quality of the product. The nuts and seeds lose color and gloss, get dried and slightly opaque, and change to have too crunchy textures. Meanwhile, the phenomena of occurrence of bloom in a chocolate mix with a chalky look, loss of a shiny sheen, and change in hardness are seen.
From such circumstances, inhibition of bloom occurrence at low temperatures, rather than heat resistance at high temperatures, is being required in the chocolate product. Further, improvement of textures of the chocolate or chocolate-like food, which have been put second to heavily-weighed heat resistance, has been advanced. In view of this, various twists including inhibiting low temperature bloom and improving the texture of the chocolate or chocolate-like food have been added.
For example, it has been suggested to inhibit occurrence of bloom caused by oil and fat migration in mixed food products in which chocolate is combined with a nut or the like by using an oil and fat composition containing specific polyglycerol fatty acid ester in the chocolate (for example, see Patent Document 1). However, it was not necessarily preferred in that a large amount of synthetic emulsifier was used as an essential component.
Further, it has been suggested to produce a chocolate having soft textures, bloom resistance and grain resistance by using an oil and fat composition containing a specific triglyceride in the chocolate (for example, see Patent Document 2). However, because of a soft chocolate mix obtained by utilizing a palm soft fraction, it could not be said that the composition was suitable for chocolate products with a block- or plate-like shape.